


Cliff, Shag, Marry: Atlantis Edition

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Number The Stars [23]
Category: Numb3rs, Stargate Atlantis, Thoughtcrimes (2003)
Genre: AU, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 18:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6869236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Thoughtcrimes/Stargate Atlantis/any, Freya McAllister + any, ladies night."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cliff, Shag, Marry: Atlantis Edition

Freya knew that her tendency to be Brendan’s little science shadow - even moreso than Rodney - looked odd to people who didn’t know them, even sometimes a little odd to Elizabeth. Granted, Freya was gate team rated, but having two scientists on a team seemed a little like overkill. Adding Teyla to the team made the team then seem a little more balanced. Three men, two women. Women to look non-threatening when they needed to approach nervous natives in their quest to find a ZPM so they could reconnect with Earth. Men to be bossy and assertive when the natives were sexist.  
  
So when Marie and Heightmeyer suggested the formation of Ladies’ Night, Freya agreed to join in. She’d had girl friends in high school, but that had ended with her stint in a mental institution. As it turned out, law enforcement was a heavily male-dominated profession, so Freya had been thrown in with Brendan and his cohorts, always the only girl, Smurfette, and she’d learned to be a bit of a tomboy to keep up. But the expedition had plenty of women, and Freya knew she ought to make friends with some of them.  
  
Naturally, the suggestion was Poker Night, and Freya knew she could clean house far too easily at that game, even without her telepathy, just by sheer dint of ability to count cards, so she shot that idea down. Teaching Teyla poker would be long and arduous. Blackjack, on the other hand, would be relatively easy for her to learn, and would require less thinking, so they could talk more, right? The point of Ladies Night was to hang out and be ladies, and the talking was more important than the cards.  
  
It took a couple of sessions of Ladies’ Night before Teyla got the hang of Blackjack, but once she did, she proved to be a shrewd player, hedging her bets carefully but always money up (skittles up) at the end of the night. Enough ladies joined in the endeavor that they split into smaller groups, rotating groups each night so everyone got to know everyone, but somehow Freya’s regular crowd became Teyla, Marie, and Rose (Edwards, a Marine who’d served on SG-11 before shipping out to Atlantis with her husband, also a Marine - though she outranked him).  
  
“So Teyla,” Marie said, “cliff, shag, marry: Sheppard, McKay, Grodin.”  
  
Teyla looked up from her cards. “Pardon?”  
  
“It’s a game we play on Earth,” Rose said. “Of the three men listed, who would you throw off a cliff, who would you shag, and who would you marry?”  
  
Teyla looked puzzled. “Shag?” Apparently the gate’s language interface translator didn’t do so well with slang.  
  
“Have sex with,” Freya said.  
  
Teyla raised her eyebrows. “I see. Who are my options again, Marie?”  
  
“Sheppard, McKay, Grodin.”  
  
Teyla considered her cards. “Rodney tells me he plays the piano, which I understand is a musical instrument which requires great manual dexterity. But he can be - tiresome. So, I would shag Rodney.”  
  
Marie choked on a mouthful of beer, but Rose nodded thoughtfully.  
  
“Grodin is very steady, pleasant, and reliable. Good qualities for a husband. I would marry him. So, Major Sheppard must be thrown off a cliff.” Teyla smiled, laid down her cards, and said, “Twenty-one.”  
  
Freya would have defended Brendan’s honor, but apart from his failed relationship with her sister June, she really didn’t know much about his reliability in a romantic relationship. In a partnership, he was, well, he was her everything.  
  
“Interesting,” Marie said. “It’s your turn to ask someone now.”  
  
“Can I even ask Rose?” Teyla asked. “She is already married.”  
  
“That does take some of the fun out of it,” Rose admitted.  
  
“Amita. Cliff, shag, marry: Kavanagh, Ford, Markham?”  
  
“Cliff Kavanagh,” Freya said immediately, and Marie and Rose nodded their vehement agreement. She eyed her cards and reined in the urge to check Rose’s mind; Rose had a formidable poker face. “Ford’s cute but he’s so young. Energetic, though. Markham - he seems like a responsible guy. So...marry Markham. Shag Ford.”

Except there was no way she could bring herself to actually sleep with Aiden. He was sweet and enthusiastic, but he was just so young. And Freya wasn’t sure what would happen if she ever let down her shields enough to lose herself in another person. She was afraid if she lost herself that much, she might never get herself back. It was why she didn’t drink, either. Her continued sanity demanded absolute continuous control of her gift.  
  
“Did you leave anyone on Earth?” Rose asked.  
  
Pretty much everyone on the expedition had little in the way of serious ties. Almost none of them had their own immediate families - no spouses or significant others or children. Rumor had it Elizabeth had left someone behind, but Carson’s only family was his mother and Zelenka had siblings and nieces and nephews that he didn’t seem to particularly like. That Rose was married and her husband on the expedition with her was highly anomalous.  
  
“Me? No.” Lies. Freya had left her sister. But that wasn’t who Rose meant. “There was this guy. My thesis advisor at Cal Tech, actually. Charlie. He was a genius. Brilliant. Funny. I graduated, and I had a couple of job offers - Harvard fellowship, teach at Cal Tech. Or work for the Air Force. And I chose the Air Force.”  
  
“And you met Sheppard,” Marie said.  
  
“He saved my life in Afghanistan,” Freya said quietly. He’d saved her so many times before that, and she’d saved him right back.  
  
“What did Charlie look like?” Teyla asked.  
  
Freya was no poet. “I’m not sure I could do him justice. Wait - hang on.” She fished in her pocket for her cell phone - which was pointless to carry but she always did off duty just because - and flipped it open, searched for a good picture of Charlie. There, him standing in front of a chalkboard covered with equations, headphones on, expression serene.  
  
“Oh, he’s cute,” Rose said.  
  
“He does indeed have a pleasant face,” Teyla said. She looked at Freya warily, and Freya again reined in the impulse to see what she was thinking. Teyla was smart and observant.  
  
Freya was an NSA agent, though. She could deflect. “What about you, Teyla? Anyone New Athos you like?”  
  
Teyla ducked her head. “Well, there is one man, Kanaan.”  
  
Marie’s eyes lit up. “Do tell! Which one is he?”  
  
Teyla did her best to describe him while Rose and Marie cycled through every Athosian man they’d ever met, trying to get on the same page about who he was. Freya watched them and smiled to herself and thought this wasn’t so bad, because there was no way she could have this kind of conversation with Brendan.  
  
Absently, she reached into the ether, searched for him, sensed his mind muted and soft in sleep and dreams, and then she readied herself for the next round of cards, because she had skittles to win.


End file.
